Weihong Qiu
Oregon State University
地点：唐仲英楼A313
时间：2019-03-29 14:00
Kinesin-14s are microtubule-based motor proteins that play important roles in cell division. They were originally thought to be minus-end-directed nonprocessive motors that exhibit directional preference toward the microtubule minus ends in multi-motor ensembles but are unable to generate processive (continuous) motility on single microtubules as individual motors. Over the past five years, we and others have discovered several “unconventional” kinesin-14 motors that all contain the ability to generate processive motility as individual motors on single microtubules. In this talk, I will present a series of unexpected yet exciting findings from my lab that have markedly expanded current view of the design and operation principles of kinesin-14 motors.
Weihong Qiu is an assistant professor at Oregon State University of Physics. He graduated with B.Mc from Nankai University of physics of China in 1999 and M.Sc from Nankai University of applied physics of China in 2002. Then he got his PhD under the mentorship of Prof. Dongping Zhong at the Ohio State University, Columbus , USA in 2008. During 2008-2013 he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow with Prof. Samara L. Reck-Petrson at the Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School. He joined Oregon State University in 2013 as an adjunct professor in biochemistry and biophysics and since 2018 he became an adjunct professor in chemistry. His lab studies the interplay between kinesin-5 and kinesin-14 for bipolar spindle assembly using an interdisciplinary approach that integrates molecular biology, protein biochemistry, cell biology, structural biology, physics-based theoretical modeling, and single-molecule light microscopy.